Poston, Bright lead Falcons past Eagles

View larger image Allison Bright View larger image Katelyn Poston

By Jerry Holsworth - sports@nvdaily.com

BERRYVILLE -- Central's girls basketball team played one good quarter of basketball, and that was all the Falcons really needed to upend Clarke County 54-33 in Bull Run District play Tuesday night.

After the first eight minutes, neither team seemed to be able to put together much on either side of the court. One of the obvious reasons for both teams' inability to play up to their usual standards was the number of players on each team who watched the game from the sideline due to injuries.

"This game just got uglier was it went on," Falcons coach Stephanie Cooper said. "I thought that we played great basketball in the first quarter. We played as a team and we handled their pressure defense really well. After that, it was like we just flipped the switch and turned everything off. I really don't know what happened."

Central (7-9, 5-3 in district) was missing senior post player Rebecca Sigler, who was out with a broken wrist. Clarke County (4-11, 4-4) was without the services of starting center Ammie Levi and reserve forward Bridget Acland.

Jumping ahead 3-0 just 15 seconds into the contest on a 3-pointer by point guard Katelyn Poston, Central never trailed during the game.

With six minutes to play in the first quarter the Falcons were up 7-2, and expanded that lead to 19-5 over the next three minutes of play. Poston and teammate Allison Bright couldn't seem to miss, combining for 15 of Central's 21 first-period points.

When Poston and Bright weren't scoring on jumpers and layups, Theresa Barela and Brenna Cook were sinking all four of their attempts from the free-throw line.

While the Falcons were hitting on all cylinders, Clarke County couldn't seem to buy a basket, going 3 of 15 from the field, and hitting just 2 of 7 free-throw attempts.
The result was a dominating 21-8 Central lead heading into the second quarter.
Then the wheels seemed to come off.

The Falcons missed their first six field-goal attempts of the second period, giving the Eagles an open invitation to get back into the game.

Clarke County, however, was only able to narrow Central's lead to 23-16 midway through the quarter although the Eagles had plenty of opportunities since Central also committed seven turnovers during the period.

The Eagles, though, were just as inept from the floor, hitting only 6 of 20 field-goal opportunities, and the Falcons used their 4-of-6 performance from the free-throw line to hold on to a 30-21 lead at intermission.

Things didn't change much in the second half except for foul trouble among Clarke County's most productive players. Three Eagles fouled out during the game. Those three players represented 23 of Clarke County's 33 points for the night.

With Mollie Schoeb, Anna Blue Catlett and Sydney Chrane on the bench with five fouls early in the fourth period, Clarke County had its worst shooting quarter of the game, hitting just 2 of 11 attempts from the field and missing both of their free throws.

"We just got away from the things that we practice every day," Cooper said. "We played undisciplined and we seemed to be trying to do everything individually and not playing as a team."

With so many Clarke County fouls in the third and fourth quarters, Central's poor performance from the field didn't hurt much. Although the Falcons hit just 6 of the 27 shots in the second half, their 11 of 19 shooting from the free-throw line kept them safely ahead.

Poston led Central with 18 points, including a 7 of 11 performance from the line. Bright also scored in double figure with 14 points.

The Eagles were led by Schoeb and Catlett with eight points each.